.: Our second week in Niue

Happy Friday the 13th. Our second week in Niue has been an interesting week of exploring inland, taking care of business and socializing at the Yacht Club.
Cindy and Diana out for lunch

Niue has a population of just over 1,000 and continues to decline due to young people immigrating to New Zealand to make a living and raise their children. The number one employer here is the government, with more than 60% of the population employed in the public sector. They don’t export anything, (with the exception of a small amount of Noni juice and vanilla) and rely on the imports, financial contributions and aid from New Zealand to keep the island going.
One of many caves and tunnels

In another case of “what a small world it is”, I went out for lunch with AnnMarie, who is an Australian expatriate, who works at the New Zealand high commission, and is the cousin of one of our Silver Star neighbours, Faye, who put us in touch with one another. Ann Marie explained that the N.Z. government is working hard to improve the school system and to encourage increased tourism as a major industry, since Niue has so much to offer naturally.
The primary school which was badly damaged by a cyclone. Canadian dollars were donated to help repair it, and the school gratefully announces this fact.

Niue coastline

The island is full of caves, lots of inland walks, magnificent coastlines, small intimate beaches, good diving, etc. and it is a great stop-over for cruising boats with the Yacht Club facility here. The major tourist draw is whale-watching from August – October.
Peter and Di exploring the island

The whales are a little late in arriving this year because the water temperature is about four degrees higher than last year. During the season last year, many cruisers actually complained that the whales and their calves were too noisy in the anchorage, along with the males who were singing their whale songs throughout the night. We’d love to have this problem. Peter did see a humpback breaching, while they were out for a dive (and I had a magical day to myself).
Perfect island look-outs to view whales

There is a crew of whale researchers here, that were meant to go out daily with Anna, the boat that capsized enroute here two weeks ago. Instead, they have been going out with various sailboats here, but they haven’t spotted too many whales yet. We attended a whale information presentation that they put on earlier this week, and it was interesting to learn that each year the whales create a new song and all of them learn it and sing it for the season. We are hearing reports from Tonga that they are there in abundance, so we are waiting for a weather window to get headed that way.
Many caves along the coast with violent waves crashing in

discovering the inland caves

so much to see and do

In the following picture, can you spot what is wrong?

This was a boat that limped in from Tahiti, where they did an accidental jib when they had a preventer line on (meaning that the wind grabbed their main from behind and tried to flip it to the other side). They couldn’t release the preventer fast enough (a preventer holds the boom over to one side, to “prevent” a violent jib -. the boom from being thrown to the other side) and the result was that they broke their boom during the storm. You’ll notice from the picture that there is no boom for the main sail. They have made arrangements to have it repaired in Tonga, but they have to make the sail over there with just their genny (their forward sail).
Did you figure it out?

The anchorage has been rough this week, with heavy swells rolling in right on our beam. Fortunately we can sleep sidewise in the “princess cabin” so that has made sleeping more bearable. We spend most of the days onshore – while those that stay on their boats are taking seasickness pills! The dinghy landing has proved to be a major challenge for bringing the boat in and for getting it back out. I’ve gained more bumps and bruises on my knees, ankles and legs from being caught between the dinghy and the pier as it seems the waves raise the level of the dinghy right at the moment I’m half-way in or out.
Dive boat getting in to the water

they made it in without too many bruises

The winds are forecast to continue to increase for the next couple of days, so we are anticipating that the earliest we can set out will be Monday. We will be sorry to leave Niue as we have thoroughly enjoyed being here. Our sail to Tonga should take two nights and I will update the blog daily while we are underway. The news that we have received is that many cruising boats have had to make some detours to avoid pods of whales. How fabulous is that?
a hiking we will go…

whew…made it to the top

The capsized sailboat Anna, is still floating and is a hazard to navigation, particularly with its dark blue hull (which is all that is above the water). It is expected that Anna will have drifted outside of the path to Tonga though, so we don’t expect it to be a problem. Have a good weekend.
one of several intimate and cozy little beaches